Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Jonah Goldberg defends Palin; slams “didn’t pull the trigger but…” reporting

Jonah Goldberg, writing for National Review, takes the media to task, along with anyone else who feels the need to turn the tragedy in Arizona into a debate about Sarah Palin. I agree completely with his assessment. Furthermore, I believe that anyone who wishes to debate Palin's map at this time is purely motivated by political opportunism.
Any soundbite, article, lecture or editorial that begins with some variation of “Sarah Palin [or Rush Limbaugh, or the Tea Parties etc] “didn’t pull the trigger but…” is either rank intellectual laziness or, more likely, a slimy or irresponsible attempt to exploit this crime for a political agenda.

Unlike, say, the issues of mental illness or gun control, there is no fair-minded reason to turn this into a debate about Palin. There is simply no known basis in fact that Loughner was inspired by Palin’s map or any of the other alleged incitements.

Feeling that it should be otherwise is not a legitimate reason to say it is otherwise. And every journalistic outfit who thinks they’re being fair by covering the “debate” evenhandedly misses this basic point. You can’t cover a debate that shouldn’t exist in the first place “fairly.” What we have here is a variant of the “when did you stop beating your wife” question. There is no evidence of any kind of wife-beating, but we still get stories that read something like this: “…some say X does beat his wife, while others point out there is zero direct evidence of wife-beating. Still, the controversy does raise larger questions about the climate of wife-beating and X’s responsibility for it.”

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Read the entire article HERE

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Totals from Romney Speak poll (at 11:48 PM)

PALIN 23

Romney 18

Huckabee 2

Anonymous said...

I guess were listening to different boadcasts. I'm not hearing ANYONE but the right gripping about this. However, I am hearing - and I agree - this is a conversation we need to have before the next election.

Pablo said...

RW,

I don't quite agree with your assessment. I have been calling for an improvement in the right's rhetoric for the past year. And yet, I vote solid Republican every time. I am not trying to exploit a weakness in my opponents by bringing up our lack of civility. I am trying to reform the party for which I vote every election.

I have been a critic of Palin's rhetoric for some time now. I don't believe that her words caused this tragedy, but I still think that Palin would do well to change her style a little bit. I don't wish to malign Palin's character by falsely accusing her of things she didn't do. But I do wish to see her reflect on some of the things she has said in the past two years.

Bill589 said...

Rhetoric - those fighting words used in politics since Washington? I don’t think that’s a problem. Nobody has shot anybody because of these words. And eventually, when a crazy person does shoot somebody while holding ‘No Apologies’ or ‘Going Rogue’, and shouting “Mitt and Sarah made me do it,” I still don’t want government word police.

Lies bother me much more, yet I’m not even against people’s right to lie.

Anonymous said...

Well said Bill!!!

jerseyrepublican